"Come to Toronto, for work or pleasure, and enjoy having your civil liberties trampled and your right to free expression stifled. Avail yourself of our hospitality in a crowded detention pen, with free stale buns and water when (or if) your hosts get around to it. Partake of an invigorating massage, courtesy of police officers wielding truncheons. The best part – there’s no charge! Except that seems to mean the cops will pick you up, hold you, then let you go without ever following through criminal charges or prosecution, suggesting they had nothing on you in the first place."http://www.ctv.ca/generic/genera…

Unfortunately, police are always in a damned if do and damned if you don't situation. People were screaming mad (myself included) that they weren't doing enough to curb the vandalism and criminal element when they were a block away. Then, when they decide to do something about it, people are screaming that they're doing too much. I guess they weren't able to find a happy medium.

I for one think they did what they had to and there was always going to be backlash at their actions. The real people to blame are the ones that planned these summits in the downtown core. WHO THE FUCK THOUGHT THAT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA??? Honestly, how could they not see this happening? Our government failed us, in serving their own needs instead of the people. (No surprise)

This shit really stings me cause it was my neighbourhood that got fucked up and these criminals couldn't give two shits about my city and the place I call home.

I'm sorry that people who were peacefully protesting got broken up, hurt or arrested, but when a cop tells me to move or be arrested, I'm getting the fuck out of there. But hey, what the fuck do I know...

"One of the most brilliant things the Nazis did was to coopt rationality, and to coopt hope. They created circumstances such that at every step of the way it was in the Jews' rational best interests not to resist. Would you rather get an ID card, or resist and possibly get killed? Would you rather take a journey on a cattle car, or resist and possibly get killed? At each step, choices have been reduced such that the victims participate "of their own free will."

Korea is in a perpetual state of protest, they just take some days off without notice. (And those Koreans obviously planned ahead and in great number, Toronto protesters didn't intend to burn anything, it took black bloc morons bused in from Montreal to do a half-assed job of it.)

This is very interesting.. as I remember not long ago during the Iranian elections.. how the corporate media villianized the Iranian government for not allowing 'free speech' and civil right to 'protest'.

what a total fallacy this world is.. its like the matrix - based on deception.. a lie.. a wolf in sheep's clothing

If one billion dollars of security can't stop approximately 50-75 vandals, you gotta wonder if that's what they were trying to do in the first place. OR is this a state sanctioned show of force against any dissenting voices, a signpost to keep people in their place. Scary shit.

I was there too, and in Quebec 10 years ago. Quebec was different, there was way more open confrontation, but it was like a cat and mouse game (not that it was a game, it was brutal and ugly) between the cops and the demonstrators. We pushed, they shot at us, we backed away, then regrouped, and pushed back, etc. Despite the violence, it made sense, and in the end we actually managed to disrupt and deligitimize the FTAA talks. To the point that the agreement was never signed.

Toronto has been a different story. The countless stories are much more horrific because it isn't even about conflict. The violence is a side issue to the intimidation, fear, control and criminilisation of people working for social change. I have a friend in jail now who was nabbed out of her bed at gunpoint at 4am on Saturday morning (before the demo)!!! The cops broke into the home at which she was staying and just grabbed her and her friends. at gunpoint.

let me say that one more time. Cops broke into the home of a private citizen and kidnapped an innocent women at gunpoint and are now holding her in jail.

I still can't believe that police cruiser was allowed to stay there and burn and be destroyed and have some guy sit inside it while simultaneously a large number of police were corralling perfectly peaceful people into groups shooting beanbags at them and arresting them etc. You'd think, being their property and stuff, that they'd secure the area and put the fire out in minutes. Obviously there was an ulterior interest.